Lakers go 2-2 during the first of two four-game slates

CLERMONT, Fla. - The Lake Superior State softball team finished 2-2 during Sunday's games at the National Training Center and are scheduled for another four-game slate Monday. 

The Lakers (2-4 overall) lost 10-0 to Davenport in five innings and 5-3 in eight innings to St. Anselm. They beat Alma 6-0 and blanked Thiel College 8-0. Today, they play St. Anselm, Concordia (N.Y.), Lycoming and Cedarville.

Davenport scored all 10 runs on eight hits in the third inning to win the opener. Only five runs were earned. Lacey Knoop had the Lakers' only hit. Sophomore pitcher Jillian Willette took the loss.

St. Anselm scored two runs in the seventh inning to come back from a 2-1 deficit and brought two more runs across the plate in the eighth inning under international tie-breaker rules. The Hawks' game-winning three-hit rally included an RBI triple. Freshman pitcher Christine Larkin made her first official start and took the loss. She threw four no-hit innings and gave up a total of five runs on seven hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. Freshman Jordan Christie retired the last two batters in the eighth.

Nichole Dunford was 3-for-5, and Knoop, Larkin and Kathryn Mulka had two hits each for the Lakers. Nicole Carstensen and Samantha Periard doubled, and Lorrie Chaperon had a single.

Willette struck out five, walked two and allowed four hits in going the distance for the shutout victory over Alma. Knoop, the Lakers' lead-off batter, was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a stolen base to lead LSSU. Chaperon was 2-for-4 with a triple, while Mulka was 2-for-4 with a double. Amber Kern also had two hits, and Carstensen had one.

Larkin held Thiel to five hits, and totaled nine strikeouts and no walks en route to her first career shutout victory. At the plate, she was 2-for-4 with a home run. Carstensen, batting in the second position, was 4-for-4 with a double and a triple, while Knoop was 3-for-5 with a triple. Chaperon, Kern and Periard had two hits each, and Mulka had one.